These stuffed peppers are really simple to make! Don't let the steps below discourage you. You will need to make or buy vegan ricotta, and you will need to make a quick white cheese sauce. But both are simple and quick to whip together. You can either make the below marinara, or use a store bought version to save you time. The cheese sauce, ricotta, and the marinara could even be prepped on the weekend, for a quick and easy weeknight dinner.

Lasagna:

Home made veggie marinara (recipe below) or you can use a jar of store bought

White Cheese Sauce:

1/2 cup of cashews (soaked in hot water a few hours, or microwaved in water for 3 mintues)

1 cups of water

1 teaspoons minced garlic

1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 and 1/2 tablespoons arrowroot or tapioca starch

1 tablespoons nutritional yeast

Instructions:

Drain cashews

Put all ingredients into a high speed blender, or food processor and blend for several minutes until completely liquified. Totally Smooooooth!

Heat on stove in a medium sauce pan, on medium heat, stirring with a whisk until it begins to thicken. It will thicken quickly so do not stop stirring! Once it thickens, remove from the heat!

The Sauce:

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 small can diced tomatoes drained

1 carrot diced

1 onion diced

1 cup diced mushrooms (optional)

1-2 teaspoons crushed garlic

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon salt

pepper to taste

splash of red wine (optional)

This sauce will make more than you need. I often just freeze the other half and use the next time I am making this recipe, or need a marinara sauce.

“Meaty” option

If you would rather have a "meaty” sauce, you could omit the carrot, pepper, and mushroom, and add a bag of meatless crumbles, or even use 2 Beyond Beef brand burgers. Simply thaw them, and cook as you would ground meat before adding to the sauce.

Instructions:

In a large sauce pan, saute all of the veggies and garlic in a few teaspoons of oil until tender. If using meatless crumbles or Beyond Burgers, Heat the faux meat, garlic, and diced onion together in in a pan until cooked through.

Add wine and let cook for a minute.

Add both cans of tomatoes, and spices, and let the sauce simmer for 15 - 20 minutes.

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cut tops from bell peppers and hallow out the insides. Place peppers on a parchment lined cookie sheet turned upside down, and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. Turning them upside down will allow the liquid in the peppers to drain out while cooking.

While peppers are cooking, boil lasagna noodles according to package instructions.

Once noodles are drained, and cooled, cut each noodle into 4 pieces.

Begin stuffing the peppers by first adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of marinara to the bottom. Next add a piece of lasagna noodle, ricotta, marinara, cheese sauce, and repeat until the pepper is filled. Repeat with remaining peppers.

Place stuffed peppers back on the cookie sheet you used to cook them the first time, and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.